The Home for Odd, Ugly and Neglected Toys

Another strange collection of unidentifiable toys! I really, really need your help with this one.

It all started with this guy.

Apple Devil(Click to enlarge)

Isn't he the best thing since weirdo sliced bread?

A fellow toy-collecting buddy of mine, Duane, found him at a flea market a few years back. He actually used to drag this toy around to various comic shows with the Wide Awake Press crew as our table mascot (I'm not sure if it helped sell more comics).

I'm telling you, for me, it was love (and envy) at first site. Duane nicknamed him Apple Devil. I now officially had a name for my new crush.

(Click to enlarge)

The name is surprisingly appropriate. The guy's got a plump, round, red head w/ green eyebrows and horns. He definitely shares some visual cues of an apple.

Just look at him. A screwed up pink skeleton body with a full-on, bright-red devil head with blatantly inaccurate, skeletal anatomy.

That's what makes him so great!

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It's been years and years, and Duane reminds me of Apple Devil every chance he gets (since I'm Mr. Toy Blog and everything). Do you know what it feels like to have one of your best friends and fellow toy collectors just dangle this unfathomably, rare jewel in front of you?

(It's not that bad actually. I mean, c'mon. It's just a toy for Christ's sake. Waitaminit! Now that I think about it. I did the same thing when I found the Nightmare Warriors at a toy show we attended together. Ha! Serves me right I guess.)

Well, that all leads me to this little story. Just recently, I posted a link to my blog on LittleRubberGuys.com just to get some feedback from some other fellow toy fanatics. One friendly member, who goes by the name THEGODBEAST, contacted me and actually sent me some pics of weird toys in his collection.

He had some pretty cool stuff. I was just scrolling through the pics... analyzing every toy, making sure I wasn't missing anything, but I couldn't believe what I saw next.

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I was sitting at my desk staring at a photo of not one but two – TWO more little skeleton guys with monster heads! And not only that, but they were totally unlike the Apple Devil (other than the fact that they had monster heads on skeleton bodies). So, I'm guessing there was a series of these toys? Various monster heads on skeleton bodies?

These two guys were blue and green, while the Apple Devil was red/pink. It kind of completes the RBG color profile (sorry... lame designer reference).

Surprisingly, THEGODBEAST was more than willing to sell these figures to me. Unfortunately, he had no more information about what these are or how they came to be.

So, here you are. Check out these beauties.

Blue Goat Devil(Click to enlarge)

Here we have the blue devil guy. He seems a little more goat-like. Check out his horns and ears. He's cool and all, but he's not as cartoony as the pink guy.

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And another detail worth noting is the non-matching blue plastic of his torso and appendages. Now that's quality!

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Now this guy is just nasty. The realistic tongue hanging out of his mouth just creeps me out.

Snake Face(Click to enlarge)

And lastly we have this guy, who breaks the pattern of the devil head on a skeleton body. This appears to be a snake-head man.

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His head looks like a large snake head that's swallowed the head of another scaly monster. It's kind of weird.

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The face on this guy is a lot more generic and nondescript. Not nearly as much character/personality in the face sculpt as the previous two figures.

What the hell are these things? I'm gonna see them in my comedic nightmares.

I recently contacted Duane about my miraculous find, and he surprised me with a very grand gesture. He actually decided to let me have Apple Devil. Duane decided Apple Devil's better off in my home where he'll have more of a purpose.

Of course I couldn't just take Apple Devil without some sort of toy compensation...

... so I decided to give Duane the three remaining Gross Out Gang figures he needed to complete the set (don't worry. They were doubles). I'm now the proud owner of Apple Devil, and Duane gets to play with Nose Ark, Egg Brain and Wired Wilma.

A happy ending for all. Thanks Duane

...or is it? The toys have no markings whatsoever. Maybe they just miraculously came through some portal opened by members of the occult. Can these be some unsuspecting tools of the devil? Hope not. I'm going to try my best not to worship them. I guess I've accidentally created a shrine full of false idols for all you Weirdo Toys readers out there to worship. Sorry about that. If you feel a bit too unnerved by the presence of these plastic demons, you can always call on Lil' Jesus to save the day.

I'm not sure how many devil heads there are, how many colors there are or what. There are absolutely no markings to reveal the year they were made or company that produced them. You think they're bootlegs or some forgotten 80s toyline? If anyone knows anything, please let me know.

It appears that these figures are from an old 80s toyline called Underworld Warriors. As I anticipated, they are a series of generic multi-colored bodies with unique heads. I'm not sure how many are in the set or who made these toys. In my attempt to read these low-res pics, all I can make out is "Made in Hong Kong" along with some other truly inspiring bullet points:

• Moving Arms & Legs
• Twisting Head
• Complete with Shield & Weapon

Wow! Their arms, legs AND head move? It's almost like they're an action figures or something. It is cool to know they came with a shield and weapon though. That's just more stuff to search for I guess.

Lastly, look at that horrendous packaging. A sloppy logo and a very, very crummy drawing of a skeleton guy climbing out of a coffin... and he's wearing a cloak. Makes him look like Little Skeletal Riding Hood. I wonder if any of the characters in this line are actually depictions of that guy.

Oh, and thanks, Patrick, for the informative email. I wish I'd received your message before spending the research time myself... but at least I found these crummy eBay pics

If anyone out there has these toys, please, please contact me. I'll definitely take them off your hands.

INFO UPDATE AGAIN!

Yes! Thanks to Clambo at Clam's Toy Box, I have a better quality image of the Underworld Warriors card. Apparently the back of the card is just blank cardboard. Classic.

I noticed I misquoted the bullet points on the package. Every "&" is actually just an "N."

snake face is my favorite. this post makes me want to go to the flea market so bad. it still needs to get a bit warmer and more spring-like around here. i’m fiending to hunt for old toys, i can feel it on an almost cellular level. the goodwill ain’t cutting it.

I think its funny that these monster/skeleton
figures have pastel body colors. I was thinking
they might be the natural colors of the material for
having glow-in-the-dark bodies, but you didn’t
mention anything about GID. So I’m guessing
they’re purposefully all pastel with bright colored
heads! Weirdo for sure!!

snake face is my favorite. this post makes me want to go to the flea market so bad. it still needs to get a bit warmer and more spring-like around here. i’m fiending to hunt for old toys, i can feel it on an almost cellular level. the goodwill ain’t cutting it.

I had the “Apple Devil” one when I was a kid! It scared the hell out of me. I don’t remember where I got it from. I remembered it a while ago and googled “Devil Toy” just for fun seeing if it would come up and I couldn’t believe that I actually found it haha. I don’t remember where it ended up though, my mom probably gave it away with all my toys to someone else I guess.

Hi, I just recently came across this old thread in the course my own research into some old toylines. I’m not sure how helpful this is but when you mentioned the bullet points on those cards it struck a bell. I recently started a collection of Galaxy Warriors in all of their many incarnations. I found that one of the easiest ways to determine which figure goes with which line is to first group them based on which points are articulated, solid or 2 piece torso, etc.. because there are in fact several lines that use bodies based entirely on sungold molds, and have no markings whatsoever. In fact even some of the Sewco ones are unmarked. Anyway, I’m rambling so I’ll real it back a bit and get to the point of the story. I found that if I could find a good pic of one on a card they helpfully list the same bullet points you mentioned (including an accurate summary of which parts are articulated) in the exact same place on the card using the same wording. In fact the basic card layout of “Underworld Warriors” is exactly the same as “Muscle Warriors”. Unfortunately I have no idea who makes them either but it could be another piece to the puzzle.

Kindred Spirits

Who is Weirdo Toys?

I’m Justin Gammon. I'm a designer/illustrator by day and toy-blogger by night. That'll explain my sporadic postings. What do you mean you want to write to me? That's odd. Hey, while you're at it, would you send me some cool toys? Thanks!